Scars
by Brin Londo5
Summary: Logan and Jubes deal with the aftermath of recent events


Title: Scars Author: Brin Londo5  
  
Email: ogreblood@hotmail.com  
  
Rating: PG  
  
Summary: After the Weapon Plus and return of Magneto storylines. Disclaimer: Wolverine, Jubilee, and all things X-Men are property of Marvel Comics and 20th Century Fox Author's note: Yes, I am aware of Logan's name being given as James Logan in the Weapon Plus files, but all will be explained. Also, check your continuity before you even THINK of flaming, Jubilee has graduated the Academy, (she's over 18, for pete's sake!), her, Kitty, and Rogue are each 1 and ½ years apart (exactly) in age. (Which mean's Kitty's 19 & ½ or so, and Rogue's over 21.)  
  
Logan trudged wearily into the mansion's gymnasium, taking a round about, cock-eyed excuse for a shortcut to the showers. He wanted to get the no longer there, but still-remembered scent of his flesh (and Jean's) burning away (before it's reconstitution by the Phoenix Force) washed off. Climbing all those steps up to his bedroom just didn't seem worth it.  
  
Most of the students were still shell-shocked after the revelation that Xorn was actually just a disguise for Magneto. Between that, the garbage with the so-called Church of Humanity, Phantomex and the whole Weapon Plus fiasco, and being incinerated on board Asteroid M, he had to admit, he didn't much blame them. Oh, right, that last part was just him and Jeannie. Whatever. Regardless, not too many were congregated in the gym.  
  
Dani Moonstar was there, along with one of her students, and one of the Stepford Cuckoos. Some little kid with blue translucent skin was jogging on one of the treadmills. Some scaly skinned girl was peeling off a pair of hose, no, wait, that was Husk getting rid of an old skin.  
  
Screw it.  
  
Logan shoved into the shower-room, shucked his boots and pants onto one of the benches, then slung a towel over his shoulder and walked into the shower area. He'd just adjusted the water to the right temperature and stepped into the spray when-  
  
"AAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Jubilation Lee's scream echoed off of the shower-room tiles.  
  
If Logan's hypersensitive ears weren't feeling like someone had just shoved red-hot ice picks into his eardrums, he'd have been grateful to note that at least it wasn't Siryn he'd walked in on. As it was, he clenched at his newly-re-grown ears and screamed as well.  
  
"Shit! Logan, you okay???" Jubilee asked, kneeling at his side.  
  
"Jeezus, Jubes, I just grew those back! You didn't have to blow them out again!" Logan muttered, as she helped him back to his feet. "Cripes, girl, what was that all about? It's not like we haven't seen each other naked before.." He glanced appreciatively at the asian-american girls shower- slicked golden body. And, that was true, both had to admit. Post-battle triages, the Shi'Ar / War-Skrull incident, Genosha, and a few others through the last six years. Nudity had long since became a non-issue between them.  
  
"Sorry, wasn't expecting you to walk in on me just now. With the girl's shower room still under repair, I draped the towel through the handle as a keep-out sign. Let me guess, Drake steal it again, or one of the newbies?"  
  
"Not a clue, Jubes, not a clue." He gave a tired sigh, something that made Jubilee's eyes widen slightly. Logan, tired enough to actually show it? Damn, he must be beat. "Tell ya what, we both clean up, then we'll go find somewhere where we won't get run over by the brat-brigade, and we'll hang, just like the old days."  
  
"I'll bring the brew!" Jubes said, turning the corner back to one of the other stalls.  
  
Twenty minutes later, the two trudged out towards the lake, a cooler under the now-dressed Jubilee's arm, a battery-powered stereo under Logan's and a few beach towels over his shoulder.  
  
"Y'know, until you got the Adamantium put back in by ol' Epoxy-Lips, you used to be shorter than me. Now look at you, almost as tall as Guthrie." Jubilee groused, as they settled back into a pair of inner tubes in the water.  
  
"Guess the nano-tech he used to re-bond the metal also stretched out the long bones, too. Lightened them up, too, about half the weight. Went from five foot three to five-eight. Hardly up there with Cannonball or Cyclops." Logan slumped into the tube. "He ain't taking this too well. It's not like when Jeannie died the first time. He let the grief out, then. Now he's holding it in, and if he's not careful, he'll crack."  
  
"What about you? You loved her, too, Logan."  
  
"Yeah, well, I already lost it. Just glad Hank and the others took me down before I could go completely berserker-feral, like I did when I took down the Dark Riders. I owe that overgrown kitty-cat, his fast thinking saved us all a lot more grief."  
  
"You didn't answer the question, Logan. Not completely."  
  
"Jeannie... before Magneto killed her, she used the Phoenix-force to completely rebuild me from the protons up. Between that, and the information Scott and I uncovered at the Weapon Plus headquarters, well, I know who I am now. And who I was, too. I don't remember everything, mind you, but... a lot of blocked mental doorways got opened up." He looked over at her, from under his hat, and took a swig of Molson's.  
  
"So? What's your real name?"  
  
"James. James Howlett, originally, then one of the serving girls changed it to Logan, and then I changed it to James Logan. Kinda funny, when you think about it. Logan was the grounds-keepers name." Glug-glug went the beer, as he tilted the bottle back.  
  
"HUH?" no flamin' way..."The grounds-keeper? You were rich?"  
  
"My old, rat-bastard of a grandfather was rich. I was a scrawny, sickly kid. Picture Little Lord Fauntleroy crossed with that kid from the Secret Garden, and you got an image of what I was like as a kid. Rich, naïve, and no healing factor at all. Sickly most of the time, because of that."  
  
"So...IS Creed your father? Or is he just crazy?"  
  
"No, and yes. And no, too." Memories bubbled up, hazy, before they faded again. Dog Logan, swinging the pitchfork at him.  
  
"Huh, I say again?"  
  
"Creed ain't my father. But we are blood-kin. Half-brothers. Not a flamin' clue where he came up with 'Victor Creed', his real name was Doug 'Dog' Logan."  
  
"Jesus, Logan." Both let out a long sigh.  
  
"Hey, Logan?"  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"Can I call you Jim?"  
  
"What???"  
  
"Jim? Jimmie? Jimbo? Jiminy Cricket with claws?"  
  
"Dream on, kiddo. Logan, yes. James, maybe. Jim... we'll see. Wolvie, even, since I can't seem to break you of that. But Jimbo, and the others? Not a flamin' chance."  
  
"Heh. I still got it."  
  
Logan pulled himself up onto the dock, and gave Jubilee a look that read 'are you crazy, or just weirder than I ever cared to realize?' "Got what, darlin'?"  
  
"I can still get under that thick hide of yours. Good to know. I almost thought it'd been so long since we were partners that I wasn't close enough to play with your grey-matter."  
  
"Heh. Guess you can take the mall out of the mall-rat, but you can't take the rat out of the mall-rat."  
  
"Hey!!"  
  
**Logan, Jubilation. Please return to the mansion.**  
  
The pair sighed, as Jubilee climbed out, too, then they hauled the floating cooler out. Thanks a lot, Sage, Jubilee thought. Almost like old times, then that walking computer had to throw a monkey wrench into it.  
  
"Are you okay?" Logan asked.  
  
"What'd ya mean?"  
  
"What do I mean? Well, for one thing, just a few weeks ago, I had to peel your body off of a cross some whack-jobs had nailed you to."  
  
"Oh. That." She shivered and looked down at the now-almost non- existent scars on her wrists. "I was dead, Logan. Dead. Those freaks murdered me, then left me for you to find. If it wasn't for you and Warren..."  
  
"Never thought I'd have to replay Australia in reverse. Seeing you up there like that..."  
  
"When they did that... Logan, I never thought I'd see you again." She swallowed. "That was the one thing I regretted, y'know? The thought that I'd never get another chance to see you. You're my best friend, and I was gonna die and never get to see the ol' canuckle-head again."  
  
"Bullshit. Darlin', we're both to darn mean and stubborn to die, and whoever's up there to look after folks like us knows it."  
  
"Y'know, you, me, Cyke, Guthrie, and Jean (when she decides to come back from her latest vacation from the living) need to form a club. The Dead Spandex brigade. Hey, think we can get Wonder-man, over in the Avengers, to join?"  
  
"Naah, then we'd have the Hulk and Captain America wanting to join, too. Y'know, I'm surprised he never recognized me. Back in WW2, I was in the unit that stormed Normandy with him."  
  
"Really." Do I really wanna ask? Logan just chuckled, leaving it up to her if she really wanted to get into that can of worms.  
  
"Hey. Wanna help me out with my advanced self-defense courses this month? You're not tied down with any classes to teach, and I can use someone who can get the in-jokes."  
  
"Ours, or theirs?"  
  
"Both."  
  
Jubilee threw her arm around the taller mutant, looked up at him, and grinned.  
  
"Sure! Why not?"  
  
End. 


End file.
